HelIo, after a few years of lurking and finding answers to my questions I finally subscribed because I have a question I could not find an answer to.
I have been thinking of turning my 1996 3500 4x4 long bed Dually in to a single rear wheel for a few years until I buy a larger trailer.
Currently I sold my camper and just tow a 3500 lb boat. Going to SRW would definitely be helpful when parking and going off-road on some narrow Forest Service trails I go on.
With that said I plan to buy a 5th wheel in about 4-5 years and would want to go back to the Dually for towing at that time.

I was wondering if instead of buying a set of used wheels from a 2500 if I could just buy 3" spacers to put on the rear to align the front wheels and rear wheels?
I measured the inside tire clearance at approximately 62" in the front and 56" in the rear. So the 3" spacers would make up the 6" difference.
I just bought six new tires last year and would prefer to spend a couple hundred on spacers rather than have to buy 5 more tires in addition to 5 more wheels.
I don't think I could run my stock 16 inch 4.75 offset wheels without spacers as it would make my track to narrow.
Thoughts? concerns? Thanks in advance for any help.
Tim C.

 

Buy 4 SRW rims, mount your existing tires from your dually rims on the SRW and mount them up.

Remove front dually wheel adapter and save along with the 6 dually rims [and 2 tires] for 4-5 years from now.

Find a SRW rear axle and install it would be the best way in my eyes.

 

Thanks for the feedback Oliver, I want to stay away from an axle swap but, I guess I could swap rims/tires, think I could do it with the purchase of steel 16" rims that came on the 2500. By doing that the new rims have a different offset so I could remove the spacers/adapters on the front wheels, then the rears end up only being about 1" inboard of the front track so I could do 1" spacers in the rear (instead of 3") to match up the track. Maybe that makes more sense and would probably work better too? I have seen that some guys just bolt up the rears without spacers and run a slightly narrower rear track but I would prefer to match the track front to rear.

 

Yes, just un bolt the wheel spacers on the front and install a SRW rim back on.

Most dually axles have a larger diameter wheel stud for the lugs... So make sure the SRW 8 lugs rims you get will fit over them on the rear axle.
Or if you decide to buy spacers for the rear, make sure you get them for the right diameter wheel stud.

 

Thanks Oliver, good point I believe they are 9/16 studs, but I will check.
Regards, Tim C.

 

The DRW diff is only ~2" wider than the front diff once the front adapters come off. (i.e. 1" per side) Not a big deal. Bolt on singles and go.

AFAIK, 2ndgens use 9/16" studs for SRW and DRW.

 

Thank you for that confirmation U2Slow! Guess I need to start shopping for some rims now...
Regards, Tim C.

 

Are you still here?

 

Which one of us on this post is "you"?

I know u2slow and I are still on DTR regularly.

 

I am still here.

 

Allenhead- Sounds like we are all here - since I saw U2slow posting on DTR too.

Other than a head count, anything you need?

 

Here we go... bored out H2 wheel on my dually 80.

 

Looks good any pic's with it mounted on the truck?

 

No. Thats a ways off still.

Tire track width actually measures out narrower than the SRW 80 with basic 16x8 daytona style steelies. (H2 wheels have more offset.)

 

yeah my conversion is on the back burner plan to get a larger camper in about 18 months so I might just stick to the duallies.